Web Hall Of Shame: Wired News Hijacks Your Clipboard

It’s a given that you can’t trust the Internet. I mean, you’re connecting to random strangers’ computers, downloading code and data, running some of that code (usually in a sandbox of some sort), and then hoping nothing bad happens. For that reason, I use the NoScript add-on to Firefox, which aggressively blocks scripts (especially third-party scripts) from running – unless I whitelist them.

Despite my general distrust, though, I still harbor a hope that most of the sites I regularly visit aren’t bad actors. When it turns out they are, it’s a bit of a shock. When it turns out to be one of the oldest names in net publishing, it’s really disheartening.

Wired News has a really cool article on lasers blasting mosquitoes out of the sky. When you copy-and-paste from that article, it hijacks your clipboard and changes what you copied. Try it yourself! (Of course, if you’re running NoScript, you’ll need to temporarily allow all scripts on the page.)